Shame that Yulia choked it away. She had a great chance to qualify in that section. Still, Wimbledon is just around the corner, and hopefully by the US Open she'll be better prepared to handle the nerves or even directly into the main draw.

I rather have her play for Russia, but in the end, it is the player who you support, not necessarily the country, I think. Although she will play for Kazakhstan on paper, she will always be Russian. It is just that in Fed cup, Olympics, and her ranking she will compete as Kazakh, but her roots remain Russian. And I will be interested how her career will develop, also as a Kazakh.
Fact is that for Russia it is a loss. I cannot judge how it must feel for the Russians that she switches the nationality. I also wonder how much this is her own decision. I can imagine that managaers are involved who also make a profit of have her nationality changed. Anyway, good luck Yulia for your tenniscareer, also as a Kazakh.

Phenomareva, I totally agree that you should support the player more than the country, it's just a bit disheartening to think what never became after 2004 when Nastya Myskina, Masha and Sexlana won those three Slams. It really looked then like the Russians would dominate, and in fact, Russia is still producing more talent than any other country.

So, it will be interesting to see how competitive Kazahkstan will become, and to see if a rivalry develops between the two countries.

I've put in the request to have a Kazakhstan subforum in Asia, so that that group of players can be cheered for in one place.

Yulia is already listed as (KAZ) for the 100k Marseille That went fast. Anyway, she is the 3rd seed there, hopefully she will do well. I guess no more 25k-s for her, she can now start playing WTA events

I heard that Yulia didn't enter Wimbledon qualies? What's up with that? I wonder if she's getting a Wildcard?

She only is allowed to play 16 tournaments a year so maybe she doesn't see herself going well there, meaning that she doesn't want to waste the tournament
She should have played for Estonia instead of Kazakhstan. Now she has gotten a worse rep for it